Sunday Review 18/08/2024

Hello Observers!

Cryptocurrencies and national politics were once like oil and water—not a mix. As the sector grew into a billion-dollar industry, the situation took a turn, and now, the combination of the two has become something like the cocktail of the season.

In the world's largest economy, the presidential candidates are actively fighting for crypto votes.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump has become an avid advocate of Bitcoin and mining, going as far as saying that he wants all the remaining BTC to be mined on U.S. soil. However, despite the former president's fanfare about the first-ever cryptocurrency, his money is elsewhere— in Ethereum.

The Democrats have been more reserved about crypto, but the last-minute ticket change from Joe Biden to Kamala Harris has led many to believe that if the newly appointed Democratic nominee wins the presidential race, the governmental agencies that have been so hard on the industry for the past four years will shift to a more favourable tune.

🔥 Week Highlights

• Dubai court recognizes crypto as a valid salary payment
• MetaMask has rollout its blockchain-based debit card in partnership with Mastercard and crypto payments firm Baanx
• Binance registered as a reporting entity with India’s Financial Intelligence Unit

Crypto Markets

The Politics of Crypto

It isn't only in the United States where crypto has become embedded with national politics. Long before Trump became a Bitcoin supporter, the Central American country of El Salvador had already adopted Bitcoin as legal tender.

The El Salvadorian government also launched a crypto tourism project, Bitcoin City, which recently acquired a major investor: Yilport Holdings. Yilport Holdings will invest $1.6 billion in the renovation of two major ports in the country, bringing in more tourism and commerce.

South in Venezuela, Binance users have been unable to access their accounts due to Maduro’s government crackdown on the opposition. Authorities have blocked social media websites in an attempt to shut down the accusations of fraud in the country’s July 28 presidential elections. Binance ended up banned, too, by accident.

Tweet Of The Week

The native token of the Sui blockchain, $SUI, increased over 100% in the week from August 5th to August 11th and has maintained stellar performance during the past seven days.

Much of the excitement can be traced back to crypto influencers on social media, who have started aggressively promoting the protocol, and also to the recent launch of the $SUI Grayscale fund.

Crypto Naughty And Sloppy

• A recent study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has revealed that the crypto ecosystem is fragmented regarding the sanctions imposed by OFAC on Tornado Cash. On one side, crypto privacy enthusiasts advocate the crypto-mixer founders’ freedom, and users keep interacting with the protocol. On the other hand, most major Ethereum block builders have stopped including TC transactions in their MEV blocks.
• Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) custodian Bitgo has entered into a partnership with BiT Global, a company owned by Justin Sun. Sun's past poor performance in managing crypto projects has made the WBTC community worried about what the deal will bring.
• In Canada, the time for crypto trading platforms to operate as restricted dealers is over. Now, any company wanting to exchange cryptocurrencies must be fully compliant with the law. The three years given by the Canadian government to crypto exchanges for trying out the legal model that best suited helped boost crypto adoption in the country to 10% of the total population.

Project Highlight: Hamster Kombat

Hamster Kombat’s Whitepaper, Tokenomics, Airdrop and Rejected Investors

The team shared that they have rejected some of the biggest VC firms’ offers, putting users’ interests in the first place. They also disclosed some details about the highly anticipated airdrop and the future of the ecosystem.

Observing moneytech and cryptoSasha Markevich

This year, Telegram crypto mini-games have exploded in popularity, and Hamster Kombat has been one of the major stars of the show.

The game has amassed over 155 million users, who are eagerly waiting for the project's highly anticipated token launch.

Big investors are excited, too, and have been coming to the team with spectacular offers to fund the game. Yet, the developers behind the tap-to-earn project have declined all big money offers due to their loyalty to the community.